Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Whilst riding home yesterday, I'm making good progress whilst the cars are just about stationary, I hear a "Hey mate you just dropped something" yelled ( at me) by a passing ute/small truck.Now, where I'm riding is pretty much single lane with parked cars.So, if I'd responded ( by looking backwards) theres a good chance I'd have gone into the back of a parked car.Ouch.I knew i hadn't dropped anything but the natural response is to turn around and look.
Ha! Cyclist 1 Ute guy 0.
No doubt I'll get got another time!

I pretty much ignore anything said (ie yelled) at me from a passing car. Most of the time it's just some stupid bogan comment anyway.

Wow!

I thought I was cynical, but even I'm not that cynical. I reckon the guy was genuinely trying to be helpful. Maybe something dropped or looked like it dropped. I've dropped something before and had motorists point it out at the next light, but it was nothing important on a major road and I was doing about 50-60kph downhill when it occurred. Another time I was carrying a 24" LCD home and a truck driver commented that it was falling out of my bag. When I got home and looked at the bag I was not surprised that he commented as it was sticking 2/3s out. But I knew it was safe because it was strapped in.

95% of motorists aren't out to cause cyclists trouble. Most are just regular nice people who happen to be driving a car!

I ignore them as it's usually some feral. Last week this bogan in a Subaru sprayed us as he passed. I thought it was his windscreen washers but then I smelt vinegar. Obviously made his day.

birdbrain wrote:I ignore them as it's usually some feral. Last week this bogan in a Subaru sprayed us as he passed. I thought it was his windscreen washers but then I smelt vinegar. Obviously made his day.

Old school trick - White vinegar is an old additive to use in windscreens for removing the greasiness that you get from insect splats.

I understand that it is also useful to resist icing of the windscreen in cold climates.

Who would have a bottle of vinegar ready and poised? Sounds to me like you did get a blast from the washers.


PS: Another trick from us "old school" guys - Occasionally apply a smear of glycerine (look in your larder, it's used in cooking) onto the wipers. It will stop them from hardening up. Apply witha little on a tissue, then wipe the excess off. Leave fro half an hour. Then wipe along them with a dry tissue to get rid of what you can and then use the washers. At first it will be smeary so keep applying the washers until it is not.

Bear in mind that when you apply the glycerine a lot of intense dark residue so don't do this in your formal whites.

human909 wrote:Wow!

I thought I was cynical, but even I'm not that cynical.

Cynical? Don't you mean paranoic?

human909 wrote:Wow!
I thought I was cynical, but even I'm not that cynical. I reckon the guy was genuinely trying to be helpful.

I agree with your sentiments. We do tend to see what we expect and so may attribute bad intent to motorists when there was none.

We need to be a little vigilant about our own foibles as we are about those of motorists. Maybe birdbrain fell for that. I can't claim perfection either and expect that I will transgress again.

I find it depends on the age and sex of the person yelling at me from a passing car. If they are young and male I ignore them, very likely them attempting some amusement at your expense. Young blokes tend toward stupidity when in a group IME.

AndyTheMan wrote:I pretty much ignore anything said (ie yelled) at me from a passing car. Most of the time it's just some stupid bogan comment anyway.

+1

On the way in on Friday a bogun on the freeway shouted "legend" as they flashed past.

Perhaps it's time I started disowning you guys. Seems unicyclists only get good boguns.

(I know he was a bogun - he pushed his torso out of the passenger window of the tradie tray-top.)

I get shouted at a lot... "allez allez allez" 90% of the time ... Can't remember being abused once in 4 years :-p

Just to add some more balance.
I was riding up to a traffic light moving into the centre lane protecting the lane space so I couldn't get squeezed.Expecting abuse when I got position, moved to the front one side and stopped .The car waiting behind pulled up alongside on the left window came down eye to eye and was offered Barbecue shapes(obliviously poisoned ) Had a nice conversation for a change .
But yes sometimes I feel under siege too.

I'm surprised jp was able to understand what they were saying, on the very few occasions i've been yelled at i haven't been able to discern a single word. Although that could just be due to the bogan dialect .

human909 wrote:95% of motorists aren't out to cause cyclists trouble. Most are just regular nice people who happen to be driving a car!

So only 1 in 20 people are. That's still a lot of people out to cause trouble. No wonder I prefer to spend most of my time on paths these days (yes, which have their own problems, but not too much where I ride).

colinoldancranky wrote:
Old school trick - White vinegar is an old additive to use in windscreens for removing the greasiness that you get from insect splats.

Interesting I've never heard that before. Wondering what it does to the duco though.

My father used an old school trick once to clean his windscreen one cold icey morning. He used hot water from the kettle. BOOM

birdbrain wrote:My father used an old school trick once to clean his windscreen one cold icey morning. He used hot water from the kettle. BOOM

That is not an old school trick. That's an old school mistake. I had a friend crack his windscreen doing the same. It's supposed to be luke warm at most and poured sparingly and evenly.

I guess it all comes down to tone, they may of been trying to help or just being stupid....

I remember years ago walking home at night and having a car pull up beside, passenger says "hey, you just dropped your wallet" to which I replied "no I haven't." Car drives off with the guy yelling out the window "I'll kill you." I give a friendly wave and watch my back in case they do a lap around the block .

Thie topic of this thread bothers me. I understand the situation and feelings of the OP but it puts it as "them versus us". Car drivers are not out to get cyclists, just as not all cyclists run read lights. We are talking about individuals or small groups.

AUbicycles wrote:Thie topic of this thread bothers me. I understand the situation and feelings of the OP but it puts it as "them versus us". Car drivers are not out to get cyclists, just as not all cyclists run read lights. We are talking about individuals or small groups.

Shall the topic be changed to bus drivers then?

It's not the cyclists or the drivers. It's the !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !!, and !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! drive cars and ride bikes.

Edit: yes the 'close personal friends' sorry about that. thanks for the filter.

It's simply yobbo behaviour. Over the years I've had it all - water squirted at me, fruit thrown at me, beer cans thrown, water pistol squirting, a large branch swiped on my back, loud yelling by passengers as they pass, a rifle aimed out the window at me.....

Yes, it's malicious, yes it's moronic, but mostly it's just yobbos - mindless teenage skylarking, often by people well past the teen years. It's not often that it is really an attempt to actually maim or harm, just unthinking stupidity.

BTW most of this happens on weekends and after hours, hardly ever on the daily commute.

il padrone wrote: a rifle aimed out the window at me.....

Wouldn't of thought that was yobbo practice

RonK wrote:

human909 wrote:Wow!

I thought I was cynical, but even I'm not that cynical.

Cynical? Don't you mean paranoic?

Hell yeh! I am paranoid because I wish to get home in one piece.They guys who yelled it 'appeared' to be yobs.They generally are not the ones to offer helpful suggestions .This IS a generalisation. I agree that nearly everyone is a good, kind person ,but in the 4.5 million I live with in Sydney, there'll be some wrong 'uns.
Maybe the young guy that whacked me on the backside whilst passing me at 80kph was just trying to help me along a bit faster?

I had a few guys pass me after giving me a bit of space on a twisty downhill, overtook and the passenger shouted 60KMH and they both fist pumped the air.

Made a change from the usual abuse which you can't make out.

Nobody wrote:

birdbrain wrote:My father used an old school trick once to clean his windscreen one cold icey morning. He used hot water from the kettle. BOOM

That is not an old school trick. That's an old school mistake. I had a friend crack his windscreen doing the same. It's supposed to be luke warm at most and poured sparingly and evenly.

Best old school trick for clearing ice of a windscreen is an old cassette tape box...